Optimal Engine / Gearbox Build for long distance?

[Terry]

Hi,

that is a pretty generous size for Australia. If you place Australia over the United States it pretty much covers the same land mass.

For a bit of perspective your trip would be covering the same sort of ground as going Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and finishing up in Broome, then driving back again. But Broome is a much warmer climate than where you are going.



Terry

[Terry]

Hi,

something else to consider when building your engine is to account for the fuel you are likely to get in the more remote areas. In Australia we get 98 RON in the cities but in the remote areas 91 or 95 RON is more common therefore the timing advance needs to be wound back a bit and try not to build too high a compression engine. Using some sort of octane booster can alleviate this somewhat.

And for the long highway running I tend to run the carby on the rich side of normal as a lean mixture at 100kph for hours on end can burn out a valve or two.

Terry

[FNQ]

Just on the fuel again.  Our figures as Terry pointed out are RON,,  yours i think are AKI  ( which is a average value of MON + RON)


You are probably all over this info but for other viewers  an example from your neck of the woods 

Fuel[/size][/font]

Canadian Petro chemical   ULTRA 94[/size][/font]

AKI or (R+M)/2                       94

RON                                     101.5

In Australia we try for 98 RON where possible but one other difference is we( OZland) can get our version of your AKI 94 without ethanol. I haven't delved into the hydroscopic changes of Ethanol blend fuels, but heck Canada Fuel operators are pretty good at their changing winter blends, so i wouldn't be too worried. Cheers Darryl

[Canadian Moke]

I didn’t know the difference between RON and what we have.  I usually just fill up with ‘super’ or ‘premium’ which would be 92 octane and above.  I avoid the ethanol as it tends to gum things up and doesn’t stay too stable during winter storage.  You still have to watch at the pump through as some places have started mixing up to 5% ethanol with their premium fuel.

We should have excellent access to quality fuel for most of the trip.  It is only once we do the final stretch North through the Yukon and Northwest Territories that the distance between pumps and the quality of fuel may decrease.  Good point Terry on running a little rich during the long highway stretches.  I don’t need to be ruining a valve that far from home.  I have done some research on other sites regarding O2 sensors and using a wideband to monitor mixtures.  It’s not something I am familiar with but might play with it a bit if everything else is all buttoned up.

[Uxmini]

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[Terry]

Hi,

If you have to have head work done before assembling your Motor you could ask them to grind up an extra inlet and exhaust valve to match just in case. Even if you don't have the tools with you to replace the valve you at least have something with you that can be used by someone with the right tools.

Normally we would carry a spare head/ thermostat gasket per car and the tools to remove and refit the head on the side of the road. For the valve we have been fortunate to be near a town when needing to replace one. At the clutch end you should have a spare Clutch plate, main seal, thrust bearing, engine mount and clutch slave and tools to suit.

At the other end replace the concertina bypass hose(if you have one) with a 1/2" heater hose and carry a spare water pump, timing seal and timing seal case gasket and a socket to get the pulley off. It is rare to have problems with the timing seal and gasket but with new engines you want to make sure they have done a few thousand km's to make sure nothing is going to show up otherwise carry the stuff to fix it a long the way.

I ran Ethanol fuels here for a few years, 10% mix I think it was back then, and the only real issue I noticed was the low quality rubber fuel hose perished while the better branded stuff was fine. And it smelt nicer, like sweet sugary smell when it burnt.

Google/Wikipedia has a nice little table for converting RON to AKI, https://www.google.com.au/search?q=98+ron+octane+level&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 

Terry

[Canadian Moke]

Taking down all the tips.  Great info.  I like the idea of bringing the extra valves just in case.  The head I will be using is a Mini Sport Stage 3 head that I bought close to 20 years ago.  It's still sitting in its box waiting to be used.  I will have to contact them and see if they are still using the same valve profile.

With the Ethanol the rubber components really need to be top quality as you discovered.  I can't say I've noticed the sweet smell though.

Tim.

[Canadian Moke]

My engine configuration thoughts keep shifting.  20 Years ago when I bought my Moke in Australia, I also bought a couple sets of Hypertec 73mm Pistons and rings.  These have been sitting and waiting for an ideal engine to go into.  Now I'm thinking it's time to use them.  I have a few 1275's around of questionable condition - in other words, I've never heard them run, and they have been sitting for the last 20+ years doing nothing.  Although I don't like the idea of going that large on the first bore job, how many more years am I going to let these pistons and engines sit on the shelf?

So, 73mm would put me at 1360 I believe.  1360, Stage 3 MiniSport (UK) head, HS6 1.75 Carb, K&N Cone filter, and likely an RC40 exhaust.

Comments or suggestions?  I already have the pistons, head, carb and filter.  I haven't settled on a CAM yet either.  I should be done my metal work on the shell in the next couple of weeks, so getting the needed parts together for the engine is coming fast.